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Saturday, August 9, 2014

I don't think there could possibly be a better photograph, ever, to accurately describe our Little Red and all that she is. Messy sand stained curls wild around her face, goggles covering her baby blues, hands on her hips, pink pink pink and ruffles ruffles ruffles ruffles... and that sassy know it all do it my way smile spread widely across her face. This picture, is perfect.

Today Evelyn turns four years old. When I try to recall the past few years of our lives, I don't know how we got here. Do we ever know how we get here? One minute shes sitting in a pile of shoes behind the front door at our Indiana St home in Texas, getting ready to stomp herself out the door only to sit on the ground and eat chalk, and the next... we're here.

This little girl has more personality in one single strand of that red hair than anybody I've ever known. The loudest most contagious laugh that ever was. An imagination that her actions just can't keep up with.

My Little Pony and CareBears and dressup and all things girly. If theres not a girl or something soft and fluffy in the movie, she won't watch it. If its not the color pink, or a frilly dress, she won't wear it. I can't even count the amount of times that I've gone into her room to check on her in the night and found her laying on the ground surrounded by stuffed kitties, with a big princess dress pulled on over her pajamas.

She won't eat the crust. Its not even worth the battle half the time.

Shes invented her own language, talking with that dang binky in her mouth. And forget about trying to give her the blue binky if you can't find the pink one. Only the pink one will do.

She'll beg you for a cupcake (which I just so happen to have cooling atop the oven right now), but lick off all the frosting, and leave the actual cake in a blooming pile of crumbs across half the kitchen.

She gets into all the things. All of them. If you tell her she can't have something, she will find a way to get it. No sharpie? ... just you wait until she climbs the cabinets, finds it, and then draws Pinkie Pie all over the walls when you're not looking. Can't wear a dress today? ...how about she sneaks into her closet during the one minute that you turn the corner to go to the bathroom, and puts on ten dresses.

Bottled water and juice boxes are not for drinking, they are clearly for dumping out inside of baskets, play kitchen sinks, car cup holders, and on baby sisters.

Speaking of baby sisters... they are not good for anything other than dressing up in clothes that are way too big for them, knocking them down, and stealing their food. Especially their cupcake frosting. But not the cupcake.

If someone is building something with blocks, dominos, duplos... BAM, down it goes. Because that's what Evelyn's do. Shes basically like a small, red headed, Godzilla. ...yes.

Redzilla.

...Okay but really though. This little girl has taught me more about accepting others for who they are, and about patience, than... no theres not even anything to compare it to. Evelyn June: you have filled in a gap in my heart that I didn't know needed filling. You've caused a heap of headaches, hoarse voices, and sleepless nights, but- I will never forget riding beside you in the ambulance when your fever was above 105, rubbing your head and singing you lullibies- running to pick you up and rescue you from the waves when you nearly drowned in Waikiki, because you just had to have that seashell- or the look on your face every single time we've gone on hour long doll hunts for tiny baby, and then returned them to your tearful side. You make me absolutely crazy, child, but without all of the crazy... without all of the you... we would spend way too much yawning. You fill our lives with sunny sing song rainbows and adventure, among other things.